Search

The search tool on FT.com allows you to make detailed and specific searches for FT.com content. You are also able to search the newspaper. The FAQs below explain how to use the search tool. Below are answers to common questions to search queries.

Search queries FAQ

How do I use search?

You can find a phrase used in any of our news articles, or you can search by stock quote. Our Type Ahead functionality will show you five available choices for both News and Quotes. The results page ranks the most relevant results highest. In other words, the results that best match your search term appear at the top of the search results list. If there are key topic pages that are relevant to your search, these will appear in the “Matching Sections” box on the top right of the page.You can also sort your results by date. This button is located at the top right of the search page. Click ‘Date’ to re-order your results, with the most recent articles appearing at the top of the page. Click it again to show oldest results first. To search for a stock quote, simply start typing in your query and choose from the quotes listed in the sub menu that appears beneath the search box. If the one you’re looking for is not shown you can either refine your query or click the ‘See more quotes…’ link at the bottom of this menu:

How do I refine my search results?

Refine your search further by clicking on any of the links that appear to the left of the search results. As you do so, each filter will appear in a blue bubble beneath the tabs at the top of the page. This will help to narrow your search results. To broaden your search results, simply click on an existing filter bubble to remove it from your search. By default, our search archive goes back to 2004. If you wish to search for a shorter timeframe, use the date filters located on the left of the page. Typing a new search term into the box will reset your results.

How do I search for a journalist’s name or headline?

Click on the ‘Advanced search’ link directly beneath the main search button at the top right of all pages. From there you can scope your search accordingly. Our searches are NOT case sensitive. Therefore regardless of whether you use upper case, lower case or a combination of both for your search terms our search engine will automatically search for all versions.

How do I search for specific dates?

You can search for a specific date by selecting the same start date and end date in our date filter. To search for a date range, select the start date and end date of the dates you wish to search.

How do I search for company ticker symbols?

If we detect market data pages that match your query, these will automatically appear under the “Quotes” heading. If you’re searching for market data and your query contains a colon, simply choose a result that appears as soon as you start typing. If you are looking for a story about a company try removing the colon, or surrounding the query with quotation marks. e.g. “lloyds:lse”

Why have my search bookmarks stopped working?

Any bookmarked searches created prior to September 13 2012 will no longer work, so you will need to redefine them. Similarly, any searches containing the operator “OR” will no longer work.

How can I improve the relevance of my results?

To search for an entire phrase you can use quotation marks. For example, typing “private equity” will return results that contain that whole phrase. To include terms in your search results you can use the + operator with no space between it and the search term it relates to. For example, typing +private +equity will include only results that include both words private and equity. To exclude terms from your search results use the – operator with no space between it and the search term it relates to. For example, +private -equity will include results that for private, but not equity.

Where can I find out more?

If you have any further queries, you can contact our customer support team at help@ft.com.